Consumer TechConsumer technology is going to exist indefinitely, perhaps for as long as the human species exists. At CleanTechnica, we try to feature consumer technologies that help to reduce global warming pollution and other types of pollution. For example: electric cars, solar panels, bikes, energy efficient appliances and electronics, and green smartphone apps. Keep an eye on this category for all sorts of fun and cool, helpful consumer technology.

Solar Power

Below is a quick overview of solar power today. Below the overview, I’ve also added a number of additional solar power stories which are worth exploring if you want to take an even deeper dive into the subject.

To get rolling, above is a CNBC interview of me talking about why, very generally, solar power is so important, and also talking about its potential to help the world today. Next is a video about how much the cost of solar has dropped in recent years and what that means, followed by an “About Solar / Why Solar” video that gets into the specifics of the energy and solar energy markets a bit more.

The sections below cover:

Solar Power’s Abundance

Falling Solar Power Costs

Solar Energy Industry Growth

Largest Solar Power Projects

If you’re looking for specific information on solar power technology, that’s not included here, but I’d recommend these resources for more on that:

No other energy source compares to the energy potential of sunshine. Looking at the image above, make sure to note that circles for Coal, Uranium, Petroleum, and Natural Gas are TOTAL recoverable reserves, whereas the renewable energy circles (including the giant solar energy one) are for energy potential per year.

The bottom line: Solar energy is the most abundant energy source on the planet, by far.

Solar Power Costs

Now, a lot of politicians and people connected to or confused by the fossil fuel industry like to contend that solar power is expensive. Well, to put the matter bluntly: No, it’s not.

Technology improvements and policies to promote research, development, and installation of solar have resulted in tremendous drops in the cost of solar power over the past several years. Even without taking important health and safety costs (note that a Harvard study concluded in 2011 that the health costs of coal are $500 billion a year in the U.S.), environmental costs, energy security costs, and other social costs into account, solar is already cost-competitive with new electricity from conventional energy options like coal and nuclear energy (if you take into account how long it would take coal or nuclear plants to get built) — see the graphs below.

That’s just an appetizer, of course. For more along these lines, here are a few more stories on solar power costs:

Solar Power Industry Growth

Dropping costs, as well as concerns like global warming and air pollution, have triggered massive growth in the solar energy industry. I’m going to focus on U.S. solar energy industry growth here, but the trends are similar globally and in other major economies, like China, Germany, the UK, Spain, and many other countries.

One of my favorite solar graphs is this one, which is on the exponential solar power growth we’ve seen in recent years:

Largest Solar Power Plants

OK, an “about solar” page wouldn’t be complete without a list of the largest solar power plants in the world, right? (Though, note that much of the solar power capacity in the world is in small installations and one of the prime advantages of solar is its decentralization and its ability to help “democratize” the electricity system — even the CIA and Department of Defense have focused on the national security benefits of solar.) Nonetheless, I think almost everyone loves a list of the “largest _________,” so here are two current lists (largest solar thermal power plants and largest solar photovoltaic power plants):

The 0.6 Euro/Watt (about 0.8 $/Watt) module wholesale price for a five year cristalline supply contract could be mentioned here. Add the same for other (BOP) costs and reasonably low margins, apply californian sun and the current low interest rates, then costs way below 10 US cent/kWh (possibly as low as 7-8 cent) are easily achievable.

Dan8, ran out of replies in your thread, I added $10,000 for installation that’s hardly DIY, you could make it a lot cheaper again if you did install the panels yourself but I never suggested that. They sell the systems you can then source a local builder to install the panels and an electrician to install the inverter and wire up the system. Possibly a tiny bit more complicated then having one company organise the lot but if you can save $30,000 surely that’s acceptable. The work is no less guaranteed if done this way, if there is an issue with the electrical installation the electrician is responsible for that, if the panel installation has issues you take it up with your builder and if the components fail you make a claim with the system supplier or with the manufacturer directly. At least I backed up my quotes with an actual link you’re just expecting us to take your word for it on the “quotes” you provided.
I also note you didn’t rebut my point about you consumption being somewhere around three times the Ca average. Trying to size a system to supply such huge consumption is unsurprisingly going to be VERY costly, but there are likely much cheaper options in terms of reducing consumption so you need a much smaller system in the end. It also makes your example quite irrelevant to the average consumer except to say that the average person would only need to spend ~30% as much on a system to supply their needs fully, ie about $10,000 from my quoted supplier or theoretically about $25,000 from yours with the added convenience mark up.

I am doing a project on solar pv in Africa (specifically, Liberia, Nigeria, Ivory Coast and/or Ghana) and looking for some market data in terms of growth and market size of this product. Would you have any of that or know where I can get it? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Wind Energy

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